Ouran Rollerball
For the manga adaptation, see Ouran Rollerball (manga). Ouran Rollerball is an anime film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. It is based on characters created by Bisco Hatori and retells the plot of Ouran On Ice. It is considered the most violent in the Ouran franchise; an appeal was even required to get its original R rating "for strong violence" changed to a PG-13 rating "for intense sports violence and brief nudity, and for some language". While the backgrounds are CGI, the rest of the film is hand-drawn. Plot The film starts as Haruhi Fujioka gets ready for another typical day at Ouran--from changing into her (boys') uniform to arriving on campus via subway. During class that day, Hikaru Hitachiin and his twin brother Kaoru discuss watching a TV broadcast of "a '70s sports film featuring James Caan, elements of roller derby, and a hell of a high body count" as Haruhi is eavesdropping. Haruhi mentions she has that very film on Betamax and that she had watched it several times over the past few months ever since her dad picked it up at a mom-and-pop video store. The host club's activities that day have the hosts (save for Haruhi) in familiar '70s anime and movie costumes (Tamaki Suoh=Rocky Balboa, Kyoya Ohtori=James Bond, Hikaru and Kaoru=Jonathan E., Mitsukuni Haninozuka=Future Boy Conan, and Takashi Morinozuka=an Imperial stormtrooper). During the club's free time, Haruhi mentions that the only reason why she didn't dress up with the rest of the characters is because she feared that Tamaki would make her dress like Honey Kisaragi from Cutey Honey, adding, "And besides, Honey Kisaragi has an even BIGGER rack than I can ever hope to accomplish... not that I'm aiming for a big rack, of course." As she leaves for the day, she's intercepted by the chairman, Yuzuru Suoh. He tells her about a challenge issued to him by a rival of his. The challenge, apparently, is to a game of Rollerball, and Mr. Suoh had already acquired 9 of the required 10 players, including all 3 motorcyclists. When Haruhi learns that Mr. Suoh forbad Tamaki to participate due to the fact that it could get extremely ugly, Haruhi volunteers to join the team. When the two walk out of the doors, Mr. Suoh introduces Haruhi to her nine teammates. Five of them are death row inmates, while the other four, including a handsome middle-aged man named Izumi Hatori, are working class folk like the Fujiokas. At first, Haruhi is contemptuous of the death row inmates for being "so fucking dangerous to society", but soon, she is made to realize that all ten team members need to get along if they want to make it out of the track alive. The ragtag team goes under intensive training under a panel of five professional Rollerball players. During that time, Haruhi finds herself falling for Izumi, who promptly gives her his address. Izumi goes on to explain that he's trying to support his wife and kids and entered the Rollerball competition just to earn some money. The intensive training (as well as rooming pairings between working class folk and death row inmates) continues for about a month, though Haruhi still finds time to do her hosting activities back at Ouran. Back at the Fujioka apartment, Ryoji (Haruhi's father) is constantly praying for his daughter's safety. Finally, on January 30, the big day arrives. Mr. Suoh informs the announcers that his team is an all-male team, and the announcers treat it like that, even to the point of referring to Haruhi as a "he" (in the line "He volunteered to join the team just because the team owner's son was unable to join the team"). When Haruhi and the rest of the team take the track, she sees a few cheerleaders that looked suspiciously like two customers, Renge Houshakuji, and Hunny. Hunny reveals that the host club cancelled their activities to root for her during the game. Haruhi looks at the stands, and sure enough, there was the host club! "And my father too! What's he doing here? I though he hated Tamaki!" Tamaki yells, "Which is why he's not sitting by me, but is instead sitting next to Kyoya!" The whistle blows, and the two teams start competing. Haruhi's teammates from death row are especially vicious, injuring every opponent (and killing three) within the first few minutes. Mr. Suoh's rival is displeased and uses his standing in the sport to change a rule in the game. He believes that Haruhi's scoring spree (she scored once every minute) is ruining the game, so he convinces the referee to allow beheading. When Haruhi learns of the rule change and spots a really angry opponent getting ready for the death blow, she snarls, "Go ahead, make my day." The two charge at each other, and Haruhi winds up beheading her opponent instead of him beheading her, much to the surprise of everyone, including the announcers. As the game goes on, more players are killed, and more rules are changed, until with just a few minutes left in the game, Izumi is mortally wounded. Beofre he dies, though, he encourages Haruhi to go on. The final battle between Haruhi and a vicious, unnamed opponent escalates to the point where Haruhi is hit in the head by the ball with just a few seconds remaining. With her remaining strength, she hurls the ball into the goal and wins the game mere seconds before collapsing and apparently dying. It's then that Mr. Suoh says why Tamaki couldn't participate, and the host club, as well as the customers and Ryoji, go into mourning for their fallen comrade. As Ryoji holds his daughter's limp body in his arms, Mori delivers a eulogy uncharacteristic of him. At that moment, Haruhi is revealed to be not quite dead and in fact on the road to recovery from her injury, which wasn't very serious at all. The congregation rejoices. Cast Trivia *The ice show upon which this film is based was originally supposed to end with Haruhi dying from her injuries, but executive meddling forced the ending to be changed slightly, with Haruhi being revealed to be not quite dead just minutes after collapsing on the track. Release See also: Ouran Rollerball home video releases The film will be released on August 15, 2009.